Author: DW

Germany’s government promised to slash the country’s notorious thicket of bureaucracy on Wednesday. The Cabinet agreed to draft a new law after a public campaign to cut red tape for German businesses, municipalities and citizens. Under the changes, hotels would no longer be obliged to register German travelers, signatures for some government forms would be replaced with emails and text messages, and the period that businesses are required to retain tax accounting documents would be reduced from ten to eight years. According to the Justice Ministry, this could save companies €625 million ($684 million) per year in “space, rental and storage costs.” “Reducing bureaucracy…

Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an RAF plane taking Defence Secretary Grant Shapps back to the UK from Poland.The GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the jet flew near the Russian territory of Kaliningrad on Wednesday, according to a report in The Times. Mobile phones could not connect to the internet and the aircraft, a Dassault 900LX Falcon jet, had to use alternative methods to determine its location.Mr Shapps, who was travelling with his staff and several journalists, was returning from a military training site in Orzysz, Poland, where he had…

Russians returning to their home country have been subjected to thorough checks and interrogations simply for having donated to Ukrainian organizations, commenting on Russia’s war on Ukraine online or having “suspicious” visa entries in their passport. In some cases, they were even subjected to criminal proceedings. Take the example of Natalya (not her real name), who crossed from Estonia into Russia in February 2024. She says a border official looked through her passport and discovered a Latvian category D visa, which can be converted into a long-term residence permit in the Baltic country. The officer took a close look at Natalya and asked…

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has squarely rejected the idea of paying any ransom for the release of more than 280 schoolchildren who were abducted last week. Tinubu specified that “not a dime” would be spent to meet the kidnappers’ demands, after the payment of ransom was made illegal in Nigeria in 2022. Authorities may be running out of time to secure the release of the hostages in northwestern Kaduna state, as the kidnapping gangs have vowed to kill the captives if their demands are not met. The kidnappers have asked for the equivalent of over $620,000 (about €570,000) for the release of the students…

A Holocaust survivor in Belgium says she knows Jewish people who have packed their bags ready to flee amid a spike in antisemitism.Regina Sluszny, 84, from Antwerp, says incidents have rocketed since the outbreak of the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas. Authorities in the city, which has the largest Hasidic Jewish population in Europe, say they received 90 reports of antisemitism in the first six weeks following the 7 October Hamas attacks last year. Image: Holocaust survivor Regina Sluszny “In Antwerp, the Jews are much more visible with these black coats and big hats, and bunches of boys go…

Populism is on the rise around the world. According to the economist Christoph Trebesch, more than a quarter of the world’s nations are currently ruled by populists. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been in power for years in Turkey, as has Viktor Orban in Hungary; Javier Milei recently won the election in Argentina, and Donald Trump might to return as president of the United States. In Germany, too, the right-wing populist party AfD is gaining more and more support. Populists usually present themselves as defenders of the people in the battle against the so-called elites. They promise the people greater prosperity, and the…

The European Union and NATO said Russia’s presidential election would be neither free nor fair, a day before polling stations open across the country. “We know, given the track record of how votes are being prepared and organized in Russia under the current Kremlin administration and regime, how this will look like,” EU spokesperson Peter Stano said. “It’s very difficult to foresee that this would be a free, fair and democratic election where the Russian people would really have a choice.”Russia’s Vladimir Putin up for reelectionTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5…

At least 29 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for aid in two separate Israeli attacks, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.The first incident on Thursday saw eight people killed in an airstrike on an aid distribution centre in Al-Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza strip, they said. Later, at least 21 people were killed and more than 150 wounded by Israeli gunfire at a crowd waiting for aid at a roundabout, the ministry said.Israel’s military said it is looking into both incidents.This comes two weeks after the Gaza health ministry said at least 112 people were killed during another…

Critics have regularly said Russia is a dictatorship but nonetheless, between March 15 and 17, the country will hold a presidential election. But the outcome has been predicted long before this week: Vladimir Putin, who has been in charge of the country for the past 25 years, will win a fifth term. That means he would remain in power in the Kremlin until at least 2030. The only clear opposition figure, liberal politician Boris Nadezhdin, has been barred from running by Russian courts, including the Supreme Court, on appeal. Other candidates include Nikolai Kharitonov, 75, who represents the local Communist Party. This party’s candidate usually comes…

A US federal judge has denied a motion by Donald Trump’s lawyers to throw out a criminal case that accuses him of illegally holding onto classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago mansion. US District Judge Aileen Cannon — who was appointed to the bench by Trump in 2020 — denied the motion on Thursday hours after Trump’s legal team argued that the central charge was too vague. She ruled that the question “warrants serious consideration” but should not be decided at this point. The former president has pleaded not guilty to a 40-count indictment that accused him of retaining classified national security documents…